Thursday, May 8, 2008

This wasn't the cupcake I had envisioned making this week. Oh, I wanted to do a strawberry cupcake with strawberry frosting but the plan was to fill it with balsamic caramel. Let's just say I may be good a making many things but caramel is not one of them. Matt just shook his head & said candy making is hard. I didn't let that stop me since really, I just wanted to make a cupcake that tasted like strawberries with balsamic, I didn't need the caramel. The strawberry flavor is just wonderful in this cupcake & frosting plus I loved the texture of the cake. The balsamic vinegar plus the cream cheese in the frosting add a really nice tang.

If using fresh strawberries cut them in half & remove the stems. If using frozen thaw them. Mix the strawberries with 1/4 sugar & let stand for about 15 minutes. Place in a small saucepan & add balsamic. Let simmer over medium for about 15 minutes. The strawberries should cook down & create a sauce. Crush the berries our use a hand blender if you want a smoother puree. Let cool. You should have about 3 T of strawberry sauce.Beat the butter on high for about 30 seconds. Add the sugar & beat on medium high until light & fluffy about 3 minutes. Add the egg & beat for another 30 seconds. Add baking powder, baking soda and salt plus 1/3 of the flour. Beat until combined. In a small bowl mix 2 T of the strawberry sauce with the milk. Add 1/2 of the strawberry/milk mixture to the batter and beat until combined. Add another 1/3 of the flour and combine. Add the rest of the strawberry/milk mixture and combine. Finally add the last of the flour & beat until just combined. Divide the batter evenly between four prepared muffin tins. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Mix balsamic vinegar into leftover strawberry sauce & set aside. Beat cream cheese & butter together at medium speed until creamy. Shift in 1/2 c of the sugar & beat until combined. Add 1 T of the strawberry sauce & balsamic mixture (you can add more is you like but you'll need to add more sugar to get a good consistency) and beat until combined. Shift in the remaining sugar & combine. Add more sugar if necessary for sweetness & consistency. Frost cooled cupcakes.

Makes 4 cupcakesI decided to post this recipe in this small batch size because that's how I bake for the two of us. I figure other people out there might be interested in baking recipes that have been sized down.

mmm... these sound amazing... what do think about using fig balsamic? i got a bottle as a gift and haven't used it yet... thanks for doing the "small batch" - we're a house of 2 also and I don't do a lot of baking because we'd eat it all!

These are darn good cupcakes. I had to make them within 24 hours of finding the recipe. The strawberry balsamic syrup is TO DIE FOR. It is possibly the only strawberry syrup I shall ever make again. And thank you so much for demonstrating the small batch - as a single gal, it's good if I don't eat 12 cupcakes in a row. (But I can. Don't dare me.)

Amy O - Taste the fig balsamic on its own, if you think the flavor would blend with strawberries go for it. I don't see why it shouldn't.& those of you who liked the small batch recipe, I think that's how I'll continue to post my cupcake recipes for small batches instead of sizing them up.

The cupcakes were a hit, but the strawberry balsamic syrup was fantastic! I made way more than I needed for the cupcakes, intending to eat it on ice cream, but it's also been eaten on toast and straight out of the tupperware.